ICICI Lombard General Insurance has won the bid to insure NACIL's aircraft fleet for USD 9.1 billion, the first time as the lead insurer for the national air-carrier, a top company official said.

ICICI Lombard General Insurance has won the bid to insure NACIL's aircraft fleet for USD 9.1 billion, the first time as the lead insurer for the national air-carrier, a top company official said.

The UK's Chartis is the lead reinsurer for the deal. "We won the bid and completed the placement racing against a tight deadline. We submitted the bid on September 15, the bids were opened on the 16th and we got the final mandate on September 21," ICICI Lombard's Head--Risk & Reinsurance, Rajive Kumaraswami, told PTI here.

It took three weeks for the placement to be completed in 2008 and, traditionally, it takes about a month for it to be completed, he said.

The national air-carrier had called for bids for a fresh cover as its earlier one of USD 8.9 billion was to expire on September 30.

ICICI Lombard, a joint venture between domestic financial services major, ICICI, and Canada's Fairfax Financial Holdings, won the bid competing against a New India Assurance-led consortium and another consortium led by Iffco Tokio. "ICICI was a stand-alone bidder," Kumaraswami said.

The other two bidders were as a part of consortia. The new insurance cover by NACIL comes in the backdrop of an air-crash at Mangalore recently which resulted in a loss of 158 lives. The premium cover stands at USD 29.9 million, up from the earlier USD 24.30 million paid by the national air-carrier.